Fifteenth+Welsh+7

The fifteenth amendment was created to guarantee voting rights to all eligble citizens regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The amendment states:
 * __The Fifteenth Amendment__**
 * __Section 1:__** The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
 * __Section 2:__** The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

This amendment was proposed February 26th, 1869.However it was ratified on February 17th, 1870. It was created to guarantees voting rights to people regardless of race and color. Who wanted it?__** People that wanted to vote because they wanted to have a right to vote for who ran their country. This amendment affects everyone because once you vote for the president everyone has to live with that decision. It also affects people who want to become citizens. Even if they know what the prosses of voting is. Illegal immigrants cannot vote though, because they are not citizens of this country, although they are fighting to get voting rights. Many people think it would be unfair, because they are not, in a political and technical sense, part of this country. This amendment is useful today because it is a democratic way of voting for a president. Our country has a democratic government meaning that everyone gets a say in something. Another reason it is important is because the United States are mainly form but people of other contries.If this law wasn't passed at least 1/4 of the population wouldn't vote. After the Revolutionary War, the only people that could vote were property owning males. Framers of the Constitution believed that there should be restrictions on voting. Some black men could vote, but by the beginning of the Civil War, black men had almost no voting rights. Women on the other hand had to fight for their rights because they weren’t treated equally as men and were not qualified to work. They had to stay home and take care of their kids and homes. Many people want this amendment to stay because it gives them the right to vote however when this amendment was created many people frowned upon it. People thought that black didn't have the knowlage to vote. During a short period of time they were allowed to vote but after the Civil War they pretty much couldn't voted. Today that has all changed thank to this amendment, now every one has the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The fifteenth amendment guarantees people the right to vote if they are eligible and legal citizens. Other people that cannot vote are ex-felons. Once someone has commited and been convicted of a felony, they have lost their privilge to vote for the rest of their lives. No, Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the voting age from twenty one to eighteen in office. [|Immigrants protest their rights]
 * __When was it created?__**
 * __Why was it created?__**
 * __[[image:15th.jpg link="http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html"]]
 * __Who does it affect?__**
 * __How is it useful today?[[image:http://english.people.com.cn/200604/12/images/0411_B08.jpg width="242" height="207" align="right"]]__**
 * __What was going on at the time?__**
 * __Why do people want or don’t want it?__**
 * __What does it do?__**
 * __Who else is not allowed to vote?__**
 * __Was the legal age for voting always eighteen years old?__**


 * Current Events:**

The right to vote is something that has started questions since 2004.Some say that if immigrants pay taxes and work they should have the right to vote like everyone else. Others say that its unfair to let immigrants to vote because that's like something ONLY citizens can vote. In San Francisco people will have the right to vote in favor or against letting immigrants and illegal immigrants to vote. This conversation has also started to "bubble" up in New York, Connecticut, and Chicago, however cities like Takoma Park, Maryland already allows non citizens to vote .They're paying taxes, they're working, they're contributing to our prosperity, said Jim Graham and yet their not allowed to vote. Another fact why there are many problems about this is because that before the late 19th and early 20th centuries immigrants were allowed to vote. However by the late 1920's those writes were long gone, the voting rights of immigrants has been a problem since the 1920's until now and some people this it will continue to be a problem for a long time.

I think that it is very important to allow immigrants to vote because of the fact that the United Stated's population is made up of many aliens, because of the fact the previous generation also had immigrant. Even if you were born in the United State you can still be considered an immigrant. Also coming from an immigrant family I think that immigrants and should vote because they work and pay taxes like every one else. Their making the countries a better plays doing the kinds of job others wouldn't do. I also think that since they work and pay taxes they should have the right to vote for their "leader."I'm my opinion Jim Graham is right and I wish others would think like him. By: Natalya R. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CE0DD113CF93AA3575BC0A9629C8B63

Many people do not know that ex-felons are not allowed to vote. On November 5th, 2008, 1.4 million black men will not be voting, due to the fact that they are ex-felons. This is called felon disenfranchisement. Joseph Hayden says that. "1.4 million Black men with voting ballots are far more dangerous than 1.4 million Black men with guns." One war veteran with a past heroin addiction says that, "The most essential and the most important and the most vital element of democracy is the individual vote." Many people, such as Mark Warner, the governer of Virginia, think that ex-felons should regain their voting rights because they have already have paid their debt to society, and now should be able to vote again. Even though some people have these thoughts, most people disagree. Director of the legal studies for the Heritage Foundation, Todd Gaziano, believes that restricting ex-felons from voting mainly protects people who live in high-crime or minority communities. Some people are trying to keep African American people from voting. Florida and Texas have the highest amount of disenfranchisement cases. Florida had disenfranchis 647,100 people, and one third of them are African American. Texas has disenfranchised 610,000 people, and one quarter of those people were African American. I think that denying someone a vote due to the fact that they are either African American, or ex-felons, is blaitantly unfair and discriminitve. I feel that ex-felons should be allowed to vote. Just because they made a mistake, they served their time and paid the consequences. But once they are set free, they should have equal privileges to the regualr average person. They are as much a citizen as anyone, and therefore they should have the same, equal say in who gets to lead their country. I think that people should in no way be denied a vote because of their color. An African American or Indian person is just as smart as an American, and they should be treated no differently. Even though racism is much less of a problem in our modern society than it was years ago, it is certainly an issue that many unfortunate people have to deal with. By: Ryan G.

Nevada's Hispanics Could Add Twist to '08 Politics Cnn.com By John King 1/9/08 This article relates to what we are learning in school because it says that in Iowa and New Hampshire a man has to go to special school to become a citizen to be able to vote. This article explains that mexicans want to become citizens and vote but they have to go to a special school to learn about voting and the process of voting so they can become eligble to vote for that presedent and have eqal rights as we do. By: Gabrielle C.

http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Article.asp?SID=3+title=National+News+NewsID=1598 [|http://www.blackpressusa.com] [|http://www.closeup.org] [|http://www.cnn.com] http://www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html http://www.equalrightsamendment.org/era.htm http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html [|http://nytimes.com]
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